We started off on our first trek of the day by exploring the Cogels-Osylei neighborhood. It was a couple miles to the south of where we’re staying. We passed through a park and admired the sweet mock orange blossoms.
Went under a decorated overpass.
Skirted a lot of construction and ended up on Cogels-Osylei. The houses are a prime example of Belles Époque ostentation, an eclectic mix of Art Nouveau, Neo-Gothic, and Neo-Renaissance.
It’s like wealthy home builders wanted to save on the expense of hiring a noted architect, like Horta, and got recent graduates from the academy who wanted to demonstrate that they knew their architectural history.
So the neighborhood is a lot of fun to walk through. “Tripping through the ‘Twerp,” is how I phrased to Ella while we were snapping pictures, and she told me to keep it to myself. I especially got a kick out of it when one house grabbed attention with a Bauhaus design coldly shouldering up against a modest two-story brick pencil.
Belle Époque buildings can be blocky, so Art Nouveau spirals of wrought iron stand out.
It would be an interesting final exam to have architectural students name and describe five different styles featured on the street.
I just hope that none were built off of the profits of the rubber trade.
I always wonder if the people in the little house next to the blocky modern building, which was probably built much later, long after they owned the little house, just HATED it,… and maybe hated their neighbors too.
It would make an interesting tale. I imagine the sound of pounding on the walls in the middle of the night and then, when the modern house neighbors complain, the old house people look at them and say, “Oh, those must be the ghosts that were disturbed when the new place was built.”